Islamabad, June 12: PILDAT has constituted a Citizens� Policy Panel on FATA in order to produce non-partisan and independent policy options to review the current Government policy towards FATA. The Citizens� Policy Panel on FATA draws its membership from experts with an understanding of FATA from the political, social, security and economic fields.

The members of the Citizens� Policy Panel on FATA include: Lt. Gen (Retd.) Ali Muhammad Jan Orakzai; Former Governor NWFP; Mr. Hameed Ullah Jan Afridi, MNA (FATA); Federal Minister for Environment; Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Jamshed Gulzar Kayani, Former Commander 10 Corps.; Mr. Khalid Aziz, Former Chief Secretary NWFP; Mr. Mujib-ur-Rehman Shami, Editor-in-Chief Daily Pakistan; Mr. Noor-ul-Haq Qadri, MNA (FATA-Khyber Agency); Mr. Rustam Shah Mohmand, Former Chief Secretary NWFP; Former Ambassador to Afghanistan and Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Talat Masood, Former Federal Secretary/Defence Analyst. To incorporate the perspectives of elected representatives from FATA, Mr. Shaukatullah Khan, MNA, Mr. Sajid Hussain Turi and Senator Saleh Shah have been invited to join the Policy Panel.

The objective of the PILDAT Citizens Policy Panel on FATA is to review the current structure, constitutional and legal framework, issues, on-going insurgency in FATA and formulate recommendations for addressing the political, social economic and security issues for the consideration of the Parliament and by the Government of Pakistan.

The Policy Panel held its first sitting in Islamabad during the previous week and decided to invite major political parties to share their perspective and policy towards FATA with the Policy Panel. The Panel is to have a number of 6-7 sittings within which it will come up with a review and proposed policy changes to be shared with the Government and Parliament of Pakistan.